> >>IBM desires to compete in the SMB and "White Space" market places.
> >>In these areas, the "Infobahn" is ineffective. It fails to penetrate
> >>the untapped customer base or potential customer base.
> > And that is problem No 1.
> > Problem No 2 is that the credible "independent" technology forcasters
> > even see Informix on the It landscape. Perhaps that is because Janet
> > P's debranding of Informix into DB2 was very effective. Or perhaps it
> > is just because the IBM Information Management marketing people just
> > cant bear to say the "Informix" word in public.
> > Problem No 3 is that, because of problem No's 1 and 2, there is no new
> > generation of Informix DBA's or developers coming along. I may be
> > wrong, (often am) but I doubt that even IT companies in India or China,
> > the great global outsource engines, are making an investment in
> > Informix. Now, I know that IBM are hoping that EGL will become the
> > Informix 4GL replacement but I don't even think IBM takes EGL seriously
> > at the moment.>
> > Michael. I agree with your musings.
> What makes Informix compelling instead of Oracle, IBM-DB2

Not much, IMHO. It may be 'nicer' in a variety of technical ways, but
they probably only matter to technical people. We use Informix because
we choose it a long time ago, today I would choose DB2.

> MS-SQL-Server,

That it runs on platforms other than Windows.

> or MySQL?

Are you serious?! Anyone who compares MySQL to DB2/Oracle/Informix
either doesn't know what they are talking about, thinks a PHP script is
a 'real application', or has simply licked too many mushrooms. The
reasons to use DB2/Oracle/Informix over something like MySQL would be
*WAY* too long to type (data integrity being the first one).

> Why would management pay for Informix instead of something else?

Because you already have it; management thinks in terms of risk.
Stinking with what you've got is low risk.

Or you are choosing an APPLICATION that uses Informix, and yes there are
still lots of them out there. My employer went shopping for a new ERP
system, and the one that ranked the highest.... recommends Informix (and
we didn't even pre-screen based on RDBMS backend). And applications are
the reason you have an RDBMS in the first place.


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